1. Cisco UCS

2. Certifications & Resources

3. But first….
Why UCS?

4. CCNA Data Center CCNP Data Center Required Exam(s)
Recommended Training
DCICN
Introducing Cisco Data Center Networking (DCICN)
DCICT
Introducing Cisco Data Center Technologies (DCICT)
CCNP Data Center
DCUCI Implementing Cisco Data Center Unified Computing
DCUFI Implementing Cisco Data Center Unified Fabric
DCUCD Designing Cisco Data Center Unified Computing
DCUFD Designing Cisco Data Center Unified Fabric
DCUCT Troubleshooting Cisco Data Center Unified Computing
DCUFT Troubleshooting Cisco Data Center Unified Fabric

5. Suggested Lab Equipment

6. Todd Lammle Blog

7. CLN

8. Z Q Cert

9. Self Paced Learning on Lammle.com

11. GlobalNet UCS Classroom
Eight
UCS C-Series
Rack mount Servers
NX-OS
6140-A
Cluster
6140-B L1 L1 L2 L2
UCS 5108
w/ Eight B200 Blades
Fibre Channel
Fibre Channel e2
Fibre Channel Storage

12. Global Net Lab Equipment Types
5108 UCS Chassis
Nexus 7010
B200 UCS Blade Server
Fabric Interconnects
Nexus 5020
Nexus 2000
(2148T)
Fabric
Extender
C200 UCS Rackmount Server
MDS 9124 SAN Switch

13. UCS Emulator

14. Ucsdatacenter.com

15. Cisco Cloud Lab

16. Intro to UCS Terms

17. ppp
Data Center Networks

18. What is Fibre Channel?
Fibre Channel is a Storage Area Network Used in Data Centers
NOT Ethernet
Different cables, ports, and switches
FC Ports FC FC
HBA FC
Tape Device
Switch
Array Controller
I/O Adapter
Server
Storage 18

19. Fibre Channel HBAs Operating System Operating System I/O Subsystem
Ethernet NIC
Flow Control
Sequencing
Segmentation
Error Correction
TCP Driver
Fibre Channel Driver
Fibre Channel HBA
Flow Control
Sequencing
Segmentation
Error Correction
HBA 19

20. Today Two Networks in Data Center
LAN
SAN B
SAN A
Today
Ethernet
Fibre Channel

21. Server Requirements Parallel LAN/SAN infrastructure
Inefficient use of network infrastructure
5+ connections per server to higher adapter and cabling costs:
Adds downstream port costs; capital expenditures and operating expenses
Each connection adds additional points of failure in the fabric
Longer lead time for server provisioning
Multiple fault domains to complex diagnostics
Management complexity: firmware, driver patching, and versioning
FC HBA
FC HBA GE GE GE GE
10/100
GE = Gigabit Ethernet
FC = Fiber Channel
HBA = Host Bus Adapter 21

22. Consolidating Ethernet with 10 GE to the Server
10/40 GE ethernet great reduces the need for Ethernet Port.
(1) 10GE port = (10) 1 GE ports!
GE = Gigabit Ethernet 22

23. Fibre Channel over Ethernet
FCoE
Benefits
Mapping of FC frames over Ethernet
Enables FC to run on a lossless Data Center Ethernet network
Wire Server Once
Fewer cables and adapters and switches
Software Provisioning of I/O
Interoperates with existing SANs
No gateway—stateless
Standard – June 3, 2009
Ethernet
Fibre
Channel 23

24. Consolidation of LAN with Storage
SAN B
SAN A
Today
I/O Consolidation with FCoE
SAN B
LAN
SAN A
Enhanced Ethernet and FCoE
Ethernet FC
FCoE = Fibre Channel over Ethernet

25. Non-UNIFIED I/O for Compute
Consider a deployment of 64 blade servers in 8 chassis with each blade having three 1Gb network interfaces and 2 Fibre Channel interfaces and each chassis having 1 management interface
328 cables
Typical Cisco UCS
36 cables
More bandwidth
Advantages
Management
Air flow
Less ports
Less heat
Less cooling

26. Before Cisco UCS…

27. After Cisco UCS….

28. CISCO UCS OVERVIEW

29. Cisco Unified Computing System overview
Cisco Unified Computing System enables a scalable, stateless Infrastructure
B420 M3
5108
B22 M3

30. Unified Computing System
Unified fabric
Unified management
Service profiles
Allows specification of server
Provisions all aspects of server
NICs, VLANs, QoS, UUIDs, WWN, VSAN, BIOS
High density
“Wire once” model

31. Simplification!

32. Physical Building Blocks
Unified Computing System Manager Embedded in Fabric Switch
Fabric Switch 20 Port 10Gb FCoE 40 Port 10Gb FCoE
Fabric Extender Logically part of Fabric Switch Inserts into Blade Enclosure
Enclosure Flexible bay configurations Logically part of Fabric Switch
Server Blade Different blade types Mix blade types within enclosure
Adapters Three adapter options Mix adapters within blade
The Unified Computing System is based on a standard set of components that most IT staff are very familiar with.
The intelligence for managing the overall system is based on a Nuova-class processor that Cisco has embedded in the fabric switch
The Unified Computing System Manager software that manages the entire system communicates with firmware embedded in every device in the system.
It is important to note that there are three adapters. The first one is a standard 10GB Ethernet adapter and the second is a 10GB Fiber over Ethernet adapter. The most important one is the third one, which is referred to as Palo. That adapter support the virtualization of the network connections, which will be discussed more in depth later in the presentation. 32 32

33. Unified Computing System
LAN
SAN A
SAN B
Cisco Nexus 7000 series
Cisco MDS 9000 family fibre channel switches
10 Gigabit Ethernet traffic
Fibre channel traffic
Cisco UCS 6100 series fabric interconnects
Unified fabric carrying IP and FCoE traffic
Cisco UCS 2100 series fabric extenders

34. Copyright © 2011 VCE Corporation. Do not Copy - All Rights Reserved.
UCS at a Glance
Fabric Interconnect
Embedded UCS Manager
Connectivity to IP Aggregation layer
FC or FCoE connectivity to Storage or SAN
FCoE connectivity to blade server chassis
Always installed in pairs
Blade Chassis
(2) Fabric Extenders
(8) slots per chassis
UCS Blade Servers
B-series blades
12 – 32 Cores per blade
Virtualization Interface Card (VIC)
This visual provides a high level view the relationship between components. This will be discussed in more detail in the following slides.

35. Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect
Copyright © 2011 VCE Corporation. Do not Copy - All Rights Reserved.
Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect
The BRAINS!
Define a UCS Compute Domain
Provides unified network connectivity to chassis and blades
10 Gigabit Ethernet
Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
IP connectivity to IP Aggregation Layer
IP connectivity for NAS file storage
Embedded UCS Management
A core component of the Cisco Unified Computing System, the Cisco UCS 6100 Series Fabric Interconnects provide both network connectivity and management capabilities to all attached blades and chassis. The Cisco UCS 6100 Series offers line-rate, low-latency, lossless 10 Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) functions.
It functions as a low-latency, cut-through, line rate Layer 2 Switch
Cut-through switches lower network latency by forwarding frames without buffering
Delivers line-rate 10GE on all ports, irrespective of packet size, traffic pattern, or enabled features
Supports up to 16,000 MAC address table entries
The Fabric Interconnects provide the management and communication backbone for the Cisco UCS B-Series Blades and UCS 5100 Series Blade Server Chassis. All chassis, and therefore all blades, attached to the interconnects become part of a single, highly available management domain. In addition, by supporting unified fabric, the Cisco UCS 6100 Series provides both the LAN and SAN connectivity for all blades within its domain. The 6100 delivers significant throughput allowing multiple chassis and blades to be consolidated to the same Fabric Interconnect
6120XP: 512Gbps throughput, million packets per second (mpps)
6140XP: 1Tbps throughput, million packets per second (mpps)
In a Vblock environment, the Fabric Interconnects are always installed in redundant pairs. Fabric interconnects provide uniform access to both networks and storage, eliminating the barriers to deploying a fully virtualized environment. Two models are available: the 20-port Cisco UCS 6120XP and the 40-port Cisco UCS 6140XP. The 6120 is only used in the Vblock Series 300 Model EX.

36. Cisco UCS 6100 Fabric Interconnect
The management and communication backbone of a UCS System.
Provides both network connectivity and management capabilities to all attached blades and chassis.
Line-rate, low-latency, lossless 10 Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) functions.
Typically deployed in redundant pairs.
The Cisco UCS 6100 Series Fabric Interconnects provide both network connectivity and management capabilities for the Cisco Unified Computing System. The Cisco UCS 6100 Series offers line-rate, low-latency, lossless 10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet) functions.
The Cisco UCS 6100 Series provides the management and communication backbone for the Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers and Cisco UCS 5100 Series Blade Server Chassis. All chassis and subsequent blades attached to the Cisco UCS 6100 Series Fabric Interconnects are part of a single, highly available management domain. In addition, by supporting unified fabric, the Cisco UCS 6100 Series provides both the LAN (Local Area Network) and SAN (Storage Area Network) connectivity for all blades within its domain.
The Cisco UCS 6100 Series uses a cut-through architecture for networking. This supports deterministic, low-latency, line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet on all ports. The inherent low-latency, lossless 10 Gigabit Ethernet unified network fabric capabilities increase the reliability, efficiency, and scalability of Ethernet networks. The fabric interconnect supports multiple traffic classes. Significant TCO (total cost of owenership) savings come from an FCoE-optimized server design in which NICs (network interface cards), HBAs (host bus adapters), cables, and switches can be consolidated.

37. UCS – Blade Server Chassis
Copyright © 2011 VCE Corporation. Do not Copy - All Rights Reserved.
UCS – Blade Server Chassis
Cisco UCS 5100 Series Blade Server Chassis
(4-8) Blades per chassis
Fabric Extenders
Redundant Power and Cooling
With the exception of the Vblock Series 300 Model EX, which is configured with a maximum of two chassis, all Vblock can be configured with 4 or 8 chassis. The Chassis are configured with four within a rack and to reduce the initial cost, two of the four chassis could be unpowered (dark). When it is necessary to expand the number of blades and the dark chassis are needed, a Chassis Activation Kit (CAK) is required which contains the necessary software licenses to activate the ports on the chassis.
The UCS 5100 Blade Server Chassis includes two 2104XP Fabric Extenders (FEX). The Fabric Extenders connect the blades to the Fabric Interconnects. The chassis also includes eight cooling fans and four power supplies. The cooling fans and power supplies are hot swappable.

38. Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Server Chassis
8 x 10Gb external
8 x 10Gbps internal
FCoE capable
2 x 40Gbps/slot max
1.2 Tb throughput
Managed by 6100
Capable of Supporting 40 GB Ethernet Standards
Auto Discoverable by UCS Manager
Hot Pluggable: Fans, Power Supplies, Blades, Fabric Extenders

39. Cisco UCS 2100 Fabric Extender
80 Gbps forwarding
Active/active with failover
8 x 10Gbps internal
SFP+ external ports
Jumbo frame
256 VLANs/VSANs
Low latency lossless 10Gbps
Managed by 6100